I have this fear of the future. The concept of being a grown up and having real responsibilities is particularly frightening to me. And, being almost a quarter of the way into my senior year of college, I find myself drawing ever closer to the day when I actually have to confront this fear of growing up.

Luckily, Hollywood is currently providing me with some ways in which I can avoid that day for just a little bit longer. Mid-September saw the release of a movie version of the popular children’s book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. This book quickly became a childhood favorite of mine after its review on the show Reading Rainbow prompted me to check it out from the library. It was also one of the books that inspired me to want to become an author.

Needless to say, I was more than a little excited when I discovered a movie had been made about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. I haven’t yet had a chance to see the movie, but from what I hear it sticks pretty true to the plot of the book. With my mind eased about the one thing that could possibly deter me from seeing a new adaptation of a piece of my childhood, I fully intend to take some time off from the rigors of an 18-hour course load to escape back to childhood for awhile.
Hollywood has not left me with just this one movie to satisfy my itch to stay a kid. Oct. 16 will see the release of Where the Wild Things Are, an adaptation of another one of my childhood favorites. I’m incredibly eager to see this movie for a number of reasons. While there is, of course, the sentimental value of seeing part of my childhood being brought to a new audience in a new medium, I’m curious to see how the adaptation is executed.

The book itself is only 10 sentences long, so is driven almost entirely by its illustrations. Will this be able to translate onto the big screen well enough to occupy the span of an hour and a half or so, or will it end up hindered by developing the interactions between Max and the Wild Things through dialogue? Only seeing the movie will answer this question, and I’m looking forward to that break from the adult world to jump into the imaginary world of Max, who’s pretty much the epitome of the spirit of every child.

Finally, there is the re-release of Toy Story in cinemas. I still remember seeing this movie in the theater when it first came out, and spending weeks after trying to catch my toys alive and walking about, like the toys in the movie. Aside from giving kids the idea that their toys were secretly living, Toy Story also introduced audiences to a brand-new type of animation. Nowadays, computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation is commonplace, but when it came out Toy Story was such a shock in comparison to the drawn animation of former Disney movies.
I can’t stop time. I can’t even slow it down. The fact that I will, in eight short months, have to enter the world of adults is inevitable. And while I may not be able to avoid being an adult myself at some point, at least I have some ways to stay connected with that childhood I’m scared to leave behind.

Carly Doenges is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences.